Hardware synthesis of high-level C constructs

Abstract

In this paper, experiments with a useable C frontend for the CCC behavioural synthesis tools are presented and analysed. This tool combination is able to rapidly deliver provably-correct hardware implementations at the RTL level, from high-level, abstract, algorithmic executable specifications at the C program level. The used constructs are discussed and a number of experiments with the tool are outlined and evaluated. The contribution of the CCC tools are invaluable for implementing real-life applications in hardware involving models with complex control flow and rich in loops and arrays. The discussed experiments prove the tools useable. © 2015 ACM.